Friday, May 29, 2009

Boredom Watch 2009

Today is the last day of school, although I use the term "day" loosely, as school today was from 8:00-9:30. In 20 minutes, the boys will be released for the summer, ready to pounce on all of the plans we've made. And it's going to be a busy summer this year; we've got twice-weekly swim lessons, trumpet lessons for Brad, piano lessons for Noah, 3 Boy Scout campouts, 1 Cub Scout daycamp, trips to the brand-new Lindon pool, visits from family, and of course a week-long vacation at Walt Disney World in Florida.

With all of this stuff to do, they can't possibly be bored, right? Right?? If you believe that, well, you obviously don't know my family that well. We are on Boredom Watch 2009 - the clock is ticking and we are counting down to the first "I'm bored" of the season. I know in some families this concept would be foreign, what with all their happily-spending-time-together, playing-board-games-and-singing-songs, who-needs-a-tv-when-we-have-each-other moments. Maybe some families have children that know how to entertain themselves, but I don't. Weird, because you'd think with all the neglecting of them that I do, they would have figured it out by now.

Sometimes I wish we lived on a farm, the romantic kind of farm in my mind where the boys help Pa with the chores without complaining, and Darcey and I spend our time keeping house. We'd make huge meals from scratch, all organic and free-range and whatnot, and because we had to thresh the wheat and churn the butter, the homemade bread would be the best thing you ever tasted. It's the sacrifice that gives it it's flavor. The boys would come home all tuckered out, but they'd still have time to meet up with their friends to play kick the can, or hit a hoop with a stick. Or maybe they'd be too tired from all that hard work to do much more than talk about that cute girl down at the five-and-dime and make plans for repairing the fence on the back forty. But that's just a pipe dream from a woman who would be personally unwilling to give up her laptop, ipod, washer and dryer, etc etc etc. Yes, that lifestyle would be the true survival of the fittest, and we'd prove ourselves to be lazy, fat, sloth-like couch dwellers ready to be picked off.

Anyhow, for the kids who have every conceivable entertainment at their disposal, summer can be a really boring time, apparently. Noah came home just now at 9:45 - the clock is ticking. Let's see how long he can last before announcing his boredom. This is Boredom Watch 2009. Stay tuned for further updates.

1:45 - WE GOT ONE!!! Noah just flopped on the couch and exclaimed "I'm so bored!" 4 hours into summer vacation.

4:20 - Noah came home from his friend's house because "it was boring." It is not too much fun to watch someone play the Wii. He did get a popsicle, though. Brad and Zack, so far, are reporting zero boredom.

9:04 - Brad, who has been at his friend's house from 11 am until 15 minutes ago, just reported that he and Evan spent all day in Evan's tree because "we were bored." The cause of the boredom was watching his friends play video games. I feel a small victory in this, because two of my kids were bored in conjunction with video games, and in Brad's case the boredom was cured when they climbed Evan's tree. Noah played baseball. Hopefully the kids, when they look back on their childhood summers, will remember baseball and climbing trees and not boredom.